. >> today's news certainly is not an excuse to try to talk down the economy to score a few political points. >> reporter: mitt romney told supporters in virginia the country hasn't mer enough. >> now, we can do better. we don't have to stay on the path we have been on. >> reporter: businesses added 114,000 jobs in september slower than the growth earlier in the summer. romney pointed out the unemployment rate doesn't reflect people who stopped looking for work. >> if the same share of people were participating until the workforce today as on the day that the president got elected, why, our unemployment rate would be around 11%. >> reporter: 8.8 million lost jobs during the recession. just under half of those jobs have been added back. that means millions of jobs still to go. and a task that will take longer than the 32 days remaining until the election. california's rate still close it 11%. the next government jobs report comes out the first week in november just days before the election. >>> the labor report pushed the dow to a five-year high today. the dow ended the workweek up 35